Benin – The Medical Director of Central Hospital, Benin City and former Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Edo State branch has called for improved training of resident doctors in the nation’s teaching and other postgraduate training institutions.
He made the call while delivering a guest lecture at the ongoing 39th Ordinary General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) holding in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
In his presentation titled: Residency Training as a Training Ground for Doctors in Administration, Dr Ugbodaga decried the poor budgetary allocation and release of funds for the training of speacialist doctors in Nigeria. In his words, “inadequate funding of speacialist training in Nigeria is fuelling the abysmal and unacceptable health indices in the country and urgent steps are needed to reverse this trend”.
Ugbodaga, who served as the 1st Vice President of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) 15 years ago called for the incorporation of a systematic management and leadership training scheme in the curriculum of medical students and resident doctors to ensure the production of medical managers who are innovative, dynamic, and who get into leadership and management positions prepared to listen and communicate, express a clear vision, maintain integrity, and express empathy to both patients and staff. These qualities, according to him are the best hope to solve some of the greatest challenges of healthcare administration in Nigeria.
He advocated a rotational approach in the appointment of Chief Resident position among the senior resident doctors during their training in a way and manner as to give them equal opportunities in leadership and expose them to the management of men and materials.
According to Ugbodaga, who was last year awarded a Certificate in Leadership and Management in Health by the University of Washington, “leadership development has clearly reached a critical crossroad, and the most important role of the leader could be described as ensuring a ready supply of replacement leaders to maintain organizational progress in the ever-changing healthcare environment”. While congratulating the President of the association, Dr Olusegun Olaopa for his resourcefulness, Ugbodaga noted that with the high calibre leadership provided by NARD over the years, the emergence of a doctor as President of Nigeria was only a matter of time.
The Benin meeting of the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) had as its theme: “the corollary of government policies on residency training in Nigeria” and was chaired by Prof. Eugene Okpere, a former Chief Medical Director of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and attracted various speakers and dignitaries including Dr Osahon Enabulele, Prof Darlington Obaseki, Prof. Friday Okonofua, Dr Chris Obaseki amongst others.
The association had earlier paid a courtesy visit to the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki in his office before the commencement of the conference.
